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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Hiking and Sledding Mt. Tecumseh

With work to do on my second round, I planned two hikes for Saturday. I came up with the idea that I would finally try out my new sled on a mountain and sled down Tecumseh. I planned to hike Tom, Field, and Willey as soon as could get this one out of the way. I started at 6am and reached the summit in a little over an hour. The trail was well packed out but had a nice coating of fresh powder and snow flakes were still flying gently from the sky. It was nice having the entire trail and mountain to myself.

Mt. Tecumseh Trail

Overcast view from outlook

I took a look at the ski trail on the way up. I noticed it appeared closed because I saw some orange tape above, so then I decided I would sled back to this point before trying to sled the closed trail from the summit. I reached the summit, and took a couple of pictures and prepared for my ride down.

Summit cairn of Mt. Tecumseh

Me, my sled, and Mt. Tecumseh

I had to go about .2-.3 probably before it was sloped enough to even consider trying to sit down on the sled. After that, it was non-stop, and non-stop fun. I slid off the sled a few times and hit a couple of trees, but everything was fun and not hurtful. I used my hands and legs to steer as there is are no other controls or handles on this sled, which is a Snowboogie that I bought at EMS. When I got to the ski trail, I tried to move over to the middle so I would not go left too quickly. On my first try on the ski trail, I fell off and saw my sled going down the mountain. I started to run after it, but I realized a post-hole in the crust would be bad news, either for my ankle or my face...it could have gone all of the way down, but thankfully it flipped over and I retrieved it. The rest of the way was awesome, including a sweet head first run. When I got to the bottom where the T-Bar lift is, I saw people working, so I walked along the side from the point. As I got to the T-Bar lift house, they were ringing the bells, which meant the lifts were opening. I had just made it, and the worker I walked past agreed with me when I said with a huge smile and sled in hand that it was a beautiful morning for hike!

The video below starts with footage on the approach to the summit, and then once I'm seen picking up my sled around the 2:50 mark, its continuous descent until the video is over. By the way, the view was awesome on the way down with the morning sun and passing flakes. I would definitely do this again!